8 comments:

Tom,How nice to see Thomas Ravenscroft's song here (!) -- plus the words too of course. Do you know my book Campion: On Song, an 'analysis' of one song by TC ("Now winter nights enlarge"), from The Third and Fourth Books of Ayres, w/ image on cover of original score of that song. You might enjoy it (if you could find it -- Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1981 -- must be in UC library). . . .

Tom... what a careless crow i am!shame on me...when i first was here to this post... i was in a hurry (not to leave... but to think)... and i just read the part you put down the post... and thought it's all of it... and i added my funny addition...

now i come and see this comment by anonymous in my mailbox and something comes to my mind and i come to write it... then i look at the post again to rejoice in the beauty of the photo and the song... and i notice the song is continued... and gosh! i'm near to tears... it cuts sooooooo deep....

so beautiful and soulful!

and funny the feeling i experience is exactly in line with what i wanted to write for anon...

again thanks for all the beauty you share here with us... the beauty within you and the beauty you find in the world without...(aren't they one?)

your are the cosmic soul of this world...

dear anonymous... thanks for drawing me to this gem once more...(un)intentionallY...this is for you:

.

modern is traditional plus an additionalwhether it is real or fictional

that addition is nothing but a new coatit may come froma peyote button's halluciantion(sigh)orthe solitude's paranoiac illusion(sigh again)

what lies underneath is the same traditional beliefthe cry of a sweet lonely childfor a caring loving hugit's the voice of your souland mineand hersand hisand theirsand ours

Yes, it was the traditional lore of the raven I was wanting to bring out. The root song is a very old Scots ballad, the Twa Corbies. There are many variant versions. In the one used here (a facsimile, from 1611) the point of view at the close is that of the dead man's lover. In another version, the POV of the birds takes over at the end. And we do understand that what the ravens are up to is a timeless form of biological recycling.

It was in order to evoke the ancient (atavistic?) sources of the ballad that I retained an antique presentation of the song, with music, in the post.

(The post is meant to link with the one below it, in both cases a warrior slain in battle becomes bird food.)